The 3rd National Survey of Cultural Relics showed that the unearthed tomb compounds of Song Dynasty totaled 160, and the tombs in the open air amounted to 500. However, in such a small county of some 2000 square kilometers, there exist tombs of Song Dynasty in all its 19 villages. Today’s Lu County has a length of 65 kilometers from south to north and a width of 60 kilometers from east to west. Why did they worship dragon? The answer is that only dragon can keep flood under control. The popularity of Dragon Bridges is mostly attributed to local feverish worship towards dragon. Most commonly, 83 bridges have two dragon inscriptions each. The maximum of dragon inscriptions on a single bridge is 6 while the minimum is 1.
The longest Dragon Bridge is in Shiyatan with the length of 100 meters while that of the shortest is only 1 meter. Mostly Dragon Bridges were built along the ancient passages approximately one bridge every 1.5 kilometers. In Lu County, the dragon inscription is invariably made on the bridge pier, and the date of manufacture could be sourced from the beginning of Ming Dynasty to the end of Qing Dynasty, which witnessed its prime time in the reigns of Kangxi, Qianlong and Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty (1661-1833). The great number and perfect preservation so far is a wonder in ancient bridge construction, which also constitutes the unique cultural compound of Dragon Bridges in Ming and Qing Dynasties in China. To this day, there still exist 141 Dragon Bridges in the desolate fields and wilderness, which, like ancient blood vessels, links folk transportation passages.
To viewers’ surprise, stone inscription of dragon appeared on many bridges, and people called them “Dragon Bridge”. Like waterside village in South China, Lu County, in the hill of South Sichuan Province of China, is densely covered by ancient bridges built in Ming and Qing Dynasties.
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